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DEBT OF MASSACHUSETTS TO DORCHESTER. 



TOWN MEETING AND FREE SCHOOL. 



ADDRESS 



J. EVARTS GREENE, 



PILGRIM CHURCH, DORCHESTER, JANUARY 27, 



1S94. 



DEBT OF MASSACHUSETTS TO DORCHESTER. 



TOWN MEETING AND FREE SCHOOL 



ADDRESS 



BY 



J. EVARTS GREENE, 



IN 



PILGRIM CHURCH, DORCHESTER, JANUARY 27, 



[S94. 



WORCESTER, MASS. : 

PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON. 

1S94. 



ADDRESS. 



As I look from my chamber window just before sun- 
rise at this season, a bright star appears in the pale gray 
sky, a little above the crest of a hill to the westward. A 
few moments later I am aware of a dusky glow nearer 
the horizon, and suddenly a great light flashes out along 
the summit of the hill, and flames there, red and splendid, 
while all the valley across which I look lies in shadow. 
So to a prescient observer, if he were a lover of libertv 
and political progress, the institutions established here, 
which we now commemorate, might have seemed a glim- 
mering point of light, suggesting hope, and as it grew 
broader and brighter, a glorious beacon, announcing that 
government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people had dawned upon the world. 

The glory that I see upon the hill-top on these winter 
mornings is but the reflection of the rising sun from the 
windows of the Polytechnic Institute. That beacon of 
liberty, kindled on this spot by our ancestors, is a sacred 
fire, fed and increased by their descendants from age to 
age until the people of a continent rejoice in its light 
and dwellers beyond the seas see its brightness and share 
its blessing. 

Stated town meetings, selectmen and free public 
schools are the safe foundations on which the political 
institutions of New England were built, or to change the 
figure, they are the germs from which these institutions 
developed. We may safely say, I think, that they had 
their origin here. They were not the adaptation to 



changed conditions of institutions or the direct result of 
habits of political thought and action formed in England. 
It is true that village communities, some of which sur- 
vive to this day in India and Russia, are among the 
early institutions of our race. But if such communities 
ever existed in England among our Keltic or Teutonic 
ancestors, they perished so long ago that no memory or 
tradition of them remained. They had their influence, 
doubtless, upon the history of the race, since we may be 
sure that no national character or custom or institution is 
precisely the same as it would have been if what came 
before it had been other than it was, but this influence 
was not distinct and traceable. 

We may confidently say, therefore, that the men of 
Dorchester did not adopt, but created these institutions. 
They chose to govern themselves in local matters. Their 
plain good sense which now seems to us, as it was, wis- 
dom of the highest strain, prompted them to say: "The 
source of local laws and regulations shall be the stated 
meeting of the townsmen ; to see that these regulations 
are observed and to manage our common affairs we will 
choose selectmen." This action seems simple, obvious 
and almost inevitable to us now, but these were notable 
and daring inventions then. Not less so was the third — 
the free public school, concerning which the convictions 
and purposes of the Dorchester men were doubtless well 
expressed in the words chosen by the inhabitants of an 
adjoining town a few years later. 

They, when founding a school which has grown and is 
growing larger, stronger, and more useful from year to 
year, and is now, in its two hundred and forty-ninth year, 
the oldest with one exception of the distinct educational 
institutions of this country, declared their motives in these 
words: "The inhabitants of Roxburie, out of their 
religious care of posteritie, have taken into consideration 
how necessarie the education of their children in litera- 



5 

ture will be to fitt them for public service both in churche 
and commonwealthe in succeeding ages." How, through 
this religious care of posterity, the children of Massachu- 
setts have been fitted for the public service in succeeding 
ages, history has recorded at some length, and she has 
not yet laid down her pen, but will hereafter, we doubt 
not, write much notable matter of the achievements, the 
wisdom and the civic virtue of Massachusetts men in these 
and later times. 

These colonists of Dorchester were statesmen — con- 
ditores imperii. It seems to me that the lexicographers 
have not sufficiently noted the distinctive difference in 
meaning of the two words — statesman and politician. I 
think I find in the usage of the best writers warrant for 
these definitions : A statesman is one who, occupied with 
the affairs of government, indicates the objects to be 
sought and plans in outline the measures by which these 
may be gained ; the politician fills in the outlines of the 
statesman's plans and attends to the detail of their exe- 
cution. These terms, of course, are relative, not abso- 
lute. The ultimate object of all statesmanship and poli- 
tics should be the well-being and happiness of the people. 
Between this and the pettiest activities of public life are 
many gradations. Some of the things done or attempted 
may seem to be ends or means, to be within the domain 
of statesmanship or of politics according to the point of 
view. Either the statesman or the politician may deserve 
honor or contempt, as his motives are pure and his prac- 
tices honest or the reverse. A man may be pre-eminent 
as a statesman and at the same time a consummate poli- 
tician as was Lincoln. The statesman points the way, 
the politician avoids, removes or surmounts obstacles in 
the path. 

Judged by this standard, the moderator of the first 
town-meeting, the first board of selectmen, the guides of 
public opinion among these Dorchester colonists, were 



wise and provident statesmen, not to be lightly esteemed 
in comparison with more famous men of their own or 
other times because the community which they served 
was small and poor. I do not much believe in " mute in- 
glorious Miltons" ; for a Milton could not be mute ; but a 
"village Hampden" maybe as strong in character, in 
courage and in intellect as the national hero, whom the 
world knows and all his countrymen revere. 

A mathematical problem which deals with inches only 
may be as difficult as if its units were the inconceivable 
stellar distances. The perplexities of a finance minister 
who is compelled to face a prospective deficit of some 
scores of millions, may perhaps demand no greater 
sagacity than that which enables many a manager of a 
small enterprise to make both ends meet with a revenue 
of a few hundreds. Self-government or any other form 
of government is not simple and easy because a commun- 
ity is small ; if it were, so many colonizing enterprises 
would not have been dismal failures. Nor does it of 
necessity become difficult as territorial area and the num- 
ber of people increase. What is necessary and insures 
success, is that the institutions of government, adopted 
or created, shall be suited to the character and conditions 
of the people. The men of Dorchester saw this truth 
clearly. Their institutions were perfectly adapted to the 
needs of their own time, and so simple and so solidly 
based on the facts of human nature and unchanging prin- 
ciples, as to admit of easy and natural adjustment to 
changing conditions without danger of disturbing their 
sure foundations. 

They were not devising temporary expedients. With 
a grand confidence in the stability of their own work, 
they knew that they built for succeeding ages. Let us 
not be too sure that " they builded better than they knew." 
They knew that their foundations were good, and though 
they could not foresee precisely the outlines of the super- 



structure, its height and dimensions, and the details of its 
decoration, they had no doubt that it would be a fair, 
spacious and stately building. 

The task of carrying forward the work they had so 
well begun they left without fear to the posterity, who 
they had taken good care should be fitted for the public 
service both in Church and Commonwealth in succeeding 
ages. 

Have we, their successors, been as wise as they? Have 
we made the most of the inheritance they left us? We 
have raised upon their foundations a building of which we 
need not be ashamed. We have added from generation to 
generation much that is stately, splendid and commodious. 
But have we been careful enough to keep the foundations 
sound and stable? I have feared that in these days, in 
our regard for temporary convenience, we have remitted 
somewhat of that religious care of posterity which is 
needful to insure the best service of the Commonwealth in 
succeeding ages. If the political education of the town- 
meeting has been so useful as philosophic historians have 
declared, and as those we have counted the wisest of our 
statesmen have believed, have we not reason to fear that 
the men of Massachusetts in the next generation, a large 
majority of whom will have had no such education, will 
be politically ignorant and incompetent, not fitted for the 
public service, in comparison with their ancestors? 

More than half the people of Massachusetts are now 
inhabitants of cities, where the free discussion of public 
matters of a local nature by any townsman, in the pres- 
ence and subject to the decision of all, is unknown. Our 
communities have become so large that town-meetings 
are impossible. A pure democracy is unsuited to these 
conditions. This is the fact, and we must recognize it. 
But have we made the best of it? Are not representative 
institutions possible, that would give us more than we 
now have of the advantages of the town-meeting? Might 



8 

we not have large city assemblies — three hundred mem- 
bers, I should not think too many — chosen by some sys- 
tem of proportional or equitable representation, meeting 
once a year, or oftener if special business should make it 
necessary, in which the affairs of the city should be dis- 
cussed and settled, the amount of appropriations and the 
objects of expenditure determined, and other regulations 
and ordinances enacted, the administration being confided 
to responsible executive officers? 

It seems to me practicable ; and among the advantages 
of such a system would be that the knowledge and dis- 
cussion of public affairs would be more widely diffused 
among the people ; every young man of talent and politi- 
cal ambition might reasonably expect to have, in the 
course of a few years, a place in that assembly, where he 
could prove his capacity and be in training for higher 
public service ; the wisest and best citizens would more 
willingly accept membership of such an assembly than of 
our city councils as now constituted; all classes, condi- 
tions and opinions would be fairly represented as they 
should be ; the opportunities for rings, corruption and 
misgovernment would be fewer. We should have simply 
a condensed town-meeting. 

I think we might also strengthen the foundations laid 
by our fathers by adopting some scheme of proportional 
representation by which the abuses and the injustices of 
our present system of elections might be removed. Our 
government is not now in theory or in fact a government 
of the majority. Ought it not to be made so, that the 
majority might rule ? 

This is not a fitting occasion for fully developing this 
thought, but I trust the suggestion of it is not out of place. 
It becomes us, however, while honoring our fathers for 
their wisdom, to endeavor to deal as wisely with the prob- 
lems of our time as they did with those which confronted 
them two hundred and sixty years ago. That we and 



our posterity may be inspired by their example, we must 
keep their deeds and the debt we owe them in remem- 
brance. 

Surely filial reverence and gratitude should prompt the 
Massachusetts of to-day to raise here some visible me- 
morial of the fact that the foundations of our political insti- 
tutions were laid on this spot by the men of Dorchester. 

The great architect, whose bones lie beneath the choir 
of the cathedral which he built, has for his memorial the 
inscription. "If you seek a monument, look around." 
That monument is large, stately and enduring enough 
for such fame as his, but how trivial in size, how mean in 
design, how perishable in substance, compared with 
that which should keep these men of Dorchester in per- 
petual remembrance. 

Let a memorial stone be placed, bearing some such 
inscription as this : 

HERE WAS HELD THE FIRST TOWN-MEETING. 
HERE SELECTMEN WERE FIRST CHOSEN. 
HERE THE FIRST FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL SUP- 
PORTED BY TAXATION WAS ESTABLISHED. 
THESE, THE MEN OF DORCHESTER GAVE TO 

MASSACHUSETTS AND TO MANKIND. 

THE FABRIC OF AMERICAN LIBERTY IS THEIR 

MONUMENT. 



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